Rabbi Daniel Siegel – Head of Jewish Life

Miskenot/miskeinut

Fortune and misfortune

Many of us, who have been to Israel, are acquainted with the word סוכנות/Sokhnut. While we might not have been to the Sokhnut HaChalal HaYisraelit/The Israel Space Agency we may have encountered more than a few sokhnut nesi’ot, travel agencies. Of course, internationally, Jews are well acquainted with HaSokhnut, The Agency, referring to HaSokhnut HaYehudit LeErets Yisra’el – The Jewish Agency for Israel, central to the founding and developing of the State of Israel, ongoing Aliyah and funding programs connecting youth to Israel.

סוכנות/Sokhnut derives from the root word סכן/sakhan which appears in the Bible. Shevna, was the סוכן/sokhein, the royal steward for King Chizkiyah of Judah, as he provided services and benefits, reflecting the meaning of the verb סכן/sakhan. We also read about Avishag, who was a סוכנת/sokhenet to King David in his old age, “serving him”.

The enslaved Israelites were forced to build ערי מסכנות/Arei Miskenot, storage and supply cities for Pharaoh. The Bible also mentions “all the ערי מסכנות/arei miskenot of King Solomon”. It is suggested that officials, like Shevna, had the tile סוכן/sokhein because they oversaw the מסכנות/miskenot, the treasuries and storehouses of the king, holding the “key of the House of David”.

While מסכנות/miskenot alludes to provisions, מסכינות/miskeinut suggests a lack of the same. The Israelites are told that the Promised Land is one in which “you will eat bread without scarcity מסכינות/miskeinut. Understandably, then, the word מסכן/miskein means an unfortunate/poor person.

One may well be מסכן/miskein if he finds himself in circumstances that are מסוכן/mesukan, dangerous. We, therefore, warn our children not to play with a סכין/sakin, a knife, lest they invite סכנה/sakanah, danger.

Some argue that the word סכן/sakan is related to the word שכן/shakhan, to dwell, and representing the granting of provisions and making for wellbeing (as regarding the שכינה/the Indwelling of God). It is suitable then that we end with a word about סכנין/سخنين, Siknin (or Sakhnin), an Arab city in the lower Galilee.

The football club, Bnei Sakhnin, was one of the first Arab teams to play in the Israeli Premier League, and made history when it won the Israeli State Cup. One of its Jewish players shared: “”Whenever I drive into Sakhnin I find it hard to leave. People keep inviting me to their homes, to weddings, to family events. I’m surrounded with love”. Its players contend that “Bnei Sakhnin is the proof that Jews and Arabs can live together”.

May such סוכנות/sokhnut of comradery, serving together and providing for one another, remind us to remain vigilant in serving as סוכנים/sokhnim in making shalom-salam שוכן/shokhen (dwell) in the Promised Land.